Understanding Business Attribute Usage

This feature enables Interaction Hub administrators to configure business attributes that are associated with portal users by way of the Portal User Profile. These business attributes can include items such as department, job code, location, and so on. Business attributes can be used as controls within PeopleSoft Interaction Hub; for example, you can use them to control access to Managed Content. This enables you to target content to a specific subset of users, based on the business attributes assigned to that content and the specific attribute value associated with each user. For example, if you define a business attribute for department, you can designate which department a managed content item is associated with, then only portal users whose user ID is associated with that department would be permitted access to that item.

The business attribute data can be imported from PeopleSoft applications, such as PeopleSoft HCM, or other applications. A set of predefined business attributes for PeopleSoft HCM are provided as sample data, but you can create your own, as needed. To do so you must be familiar with the record structure for that data, because when you configure a business attribute, you must identify the domain table name and key that attribute is based on. Examples provided within this documentation are for configuring and using this feature with PeopleSoft HCM.

Maintaining Business Attributes

Administrators use the Profile Configuration page to set up and maintain business attributes. Using this page, they define the business attributes, designate the database records that contain their values, specify the key field, and indicate whether the attribute is used to control access to managed content.

Assigning Business Attributes to Users

The business attributes that a user is associated with are stored in the PeopleSoft Interaction Hub User Profile table (EPPCW_PROF_HDR and EPPCW_PROF_ATT). To assign business attributes to users, you can import the data into the User Profile table. You can use the User Business Data Attributes page to view the attributes associated with a specific user ID.

The User Business Data Attributes page relies on the PeopleSoft User ID to retrieve user profile details. If the data source that populates the User Profile table does not contain the PeopleSoft User ID, it will be necessary to make an association between the User Profile key and the PeopleSoft User ID. For example, in the delivered sample User Profile data source, the HCM Workforce integration contains EMPLID to identify employees, but not the related PeopleSoft User ID. The PSOPRDEFN table, whose key is based on the PeopleSoft User ID, provides a ready-made association between the PeopleSoft User ID and the EMPLID. Therefore, this association requires the EMPLID to be populated in the PSOPRDEFN table in the Interaction Hub database. The handler that loads the User Profile can then determine which PeopleSoft User's profile is being updated.

Note: PeopleTools associates the EMP profile type with the PERSONAL_DATA table which does not exist in the Interaction Hub database, therefore even if EMPID are populated in Interaction Hub, they are not displayed on the PeopleTools User Profiles page. A dummy record, EPPCW_PERS_DATA has been added for the EMP user type in Interaction Hub to display EMPIDs on the page. It is not necessary for the EPPCW_PERS_DATA table to be populated as its purpose is only to fulfill the requirement that the profile type is assigned to a valid table in order for the EMPID to display.

Syncing New Users

New users are synchronized from the HCM database using Integration Broker services such as the PeopleTools USER_PROFILE_XFR Service Operation.

For new hires, it is possible that in HCM the employee's job data are entered into the system before an operator id is assigned to the employee. The job data gets synced to the Interaction Hub, provided the Integration Broker integration configuration is completed.

See, Populating the PeopleSoft Interaction Hub User Profile Table.

The Interaction Hub User Profile handler cannot tell which operator id the incoming job attributes belong to, because the association does not exist in Interaction Hub. The handler allows the job data to be stored until the operator id is created in HCM and synced into Interaction Hub, at that time the incoming operator id is assigned to the job data in the Interaction Hub User Profile table. This scenario is handled by activating the handler Portal_update_user_profile of the USER_PROFILE_XFR service operation.

For more details on transferring users between databases and setting up user profile types, see the product documentation for PeopleTools: Security Administration, “Transferring Users Between Databases”.

See the product documentation for PeopleTools: Security Administration, “Setting Up User Profile Types”.

Implementation Steps

The steps to implement business attribute controls are:

  • Maintain business attribute definitions.

  • Load the business attribute data tables.

  • Populate the PeopleSoft Interaction Hub User Profile table.

  • Add new business attributes.

You use the links listed in the Related Links area for more information about these implementation steps.